I don’t know about you, but I suspect that he’s contemplating the size of Harry Reid’s brain…

Stories of the Day

Whatever this guy is drinking, he needs to stop–NOW. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Congressional Budget Office report that shows Obamacare will make the labor force lose 2.3 million full-time workers by 2021 is positive because it lets Americans be “free agents.” “We have the CBO report, which rightfully says, that people shouldn’t have job lock. If they — we live in a country where there should be free agency. People can do what they want,” Reid told reporters outside of a close policy luncheon. ‘And what they’re saying here is — and the fact checkers have already done this — the Republicans talk about losing millions of jobs simply isn’t true. It allows people to get out of a job they’re locked into, because of — they have healthcare in their job.’” Reid: Obamacare Doesn’t Cost Jobs, It Turns Workers Into ‘Free Agents’

Not ready. “On the more mundane side of Sochi dysfunction, he says, is a deluge of half-finished projects, including unopened hotels and some where workers have yet to install heaters and air conditioners. There’s a mall where the only operating store is a Cinnabon. And some projects are completed but shoddily done. Segal says he accidentally pulled the handles off two doors in the Bolshoy Ice Dome, and said stray dogs were able to enter the heavily guarded media center.” New Arrivals Are Finding a ‘Soviet-Style Dystopia’ in Sochi

“I often wished that American “Democrats” would gain a greater understanding of everyday life under state control. Maybe then they would stop the flow of Harry Reids and Nancy Pelosis into our government. Now, looks like Sochi Olympics are about to offer at least a small, limited glimpse at that experience. Even in 20 years, you can’t undo the full extent of 70 years of damage to the national psyche, work mentality, planning practices, and infrastructure. North American media representatives arriving to the Sochi hotels were quite surprised, if not shocked, to discover broken appliances, uncovered manholes, swarms of stray dogs, unflushable toilet paper, various outages, “rust water”, construction workers sleeping in the rooms, and other pleasantries. As the article puts it, they were having trouble ‘trying to find a hotel room fit for humans.’” Americans get a glimpse of Soviet life offered by Sochi

Playing poker. “After taking the Senate in 2014, Republicans in both chambers of Congress should pass a rational immigration reform bill — one which the far left and the far right will both dislike — and use that as a crowbar with which to pry voters away from the Democrats. After all, in such a scenario, Republicans win politically whether Obama signs or vetoes the bill. Even a modest swing in the Hispanic (and Asian-American) vote toward a Republican candidate (or simply away from voting at all) could be the difference between a Republican victory and yet another disastrous defeat in a presidential election. I don’t buy the arguments that such a swing is impossible. With midterm elections only nine months away, jumping into a full-fledged immigration debate is a dangerous distraction, particularly when no good policy outcome is conceivable and when the best election issue stands, like a Valentine’s Day rose, as a fragrant vision for GOP candidates and a thorn in the side of millions, or tens of millions, of American citizens — and dozens of worried Democrats.” Immigration Strategery

Big Government

“Obama glibly tosses aside even the possibility of corruption in the IRS before the investigation is even complete while Lerner’s decision to clam up actively prevented further investigation into her role in targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny and holding their applications in administrative limbo for longer than liberal groups. We can and we should take the negative inference from Lerner’s decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment. She had no reason to do so unless she believed a crime had been committed. I think we should take Lerner, who was present and involved in the event, at her word when she indicated that crimes might have been committed. Certainly Lerner is more credible on the topic than the President, who wasn’t even briefed on the matter.” Obama: There Isn’t Even A Smidgen Of Corruption At IRS

Economy

From the comments: “Behold, the marriage of Keynes and Marx. When the EPA intentionally infuses anti-capitalism into ENERGY and the IRS assaults free market liberty, the arrow for freedom points down, down and further down.” “The problem is NOT government spending, contrary to the well-meaning obsession of the Tea Party. That will BECOME the problem a decade or two from now. The problem now is obstacles to investment: the highest corporate tax rate in the world, onerous regulation, the crazyquilt uncertainty of Obamacare. America needs aggressive tax cuts and regulatory rollback. It also needs to spend more on infrastructure, which is becoming a major obstacle to growth. It needs to spend more on R&D, particularly on cutting-edge military R&D. The way to do this, I’ve argued for years, is to emulate Roosevelt’s alphabet-soup federal agencies and put unemployed Americans to work repairing infrastructure at $20 an hour, rather than paying $50 an hour to the construction unions. That’s heresy from a free-marketeer like me, but it makes economic sense and will drive the Democrats crazy.” The Exhausted U.S. Economy, and a Lesson for Republicans

Energy

“Affordable power dissolves liberal fantasies. White House wise men insist on spending the public’s money to promote retro power plants such as windmills, which went out of fashion with the Industrial Revolution. Eliminating the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would take cheap crude from the oil sands of Canada down to the Gulf Coast of Texas, is nevertheless a liberal priority.” Obama’s basketball strategy on Keystone XL

Hillary Clinton

Empty resume. “Let’s get back to messaging. The message here will be what it was in 2008 and to a lesser extent in 2012 — a chance to make history, this time by electing the first female US president. In fact, that’s all Hillary has. She has no track record of significant accomplishment in her eight years as a US Senator, and nothing at all to recommend her from her four years as Secretary of State. Even a Clinton ally like Lanny Davis couldn’t come up with a single data point in a tenure bookended by the “reset button” embarrassment and the debacle in Benghazi. Despite her outsize power in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton is simply a weak candidate and a mediocre-at-best campaigner — and that’s why Democrats should be hitting the panic button.” Team Obama: Hillary’s making her 2008 mistakes all over again

The Media

Class warfare at the NY Times. “Why do the reporters hate the editorial page? Let’s count the ways: 1) The editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, is arrogant, petty and vindictive. 2) The news room has suffered deep cuts, while the editorial page is lavishly staffed, and yet turns out a lousy product. 3) The poor quality of the paper’s editorials is embarrassing: “they’re completely reflexively liberal, utterly predictable, usually poorly written and totally ineffectual.” Well, they aren’t totally without value. We have fun laughing at them.” Even the New York Times Hates the New York Times!

I think so many on our side are overly sensitive because we see what the Left is attempting to do by stealth to our country. So even minor things like this get us riled up. “This is something that not all that long ago nearly all conservatives would have understood. Yet today the ad by Coke is interpreted by some figures on the right as divisive and offensive, a Trojan Horse for immigration reform, as part of the Culture War. And the unmistakable message being sent by these individuals is that people of other cultures are aliens and threats and are therefore unwelcome. “Keep your mouths shut when it comes to our patriotic songs” is the message Messrs. Beck and Bolling are sending. What a brilliant way to appeal to a nation that is becoming increasingly diverse and multicultural.” A Disturbing Conservative Reaction to the Coke Ad

We’re tired of Liberal tyranny and hopefully more and more of us simply aren’t going to take it anymore. “PC nonsense??? The bien pensant are now jumping on Seinfeld because he had only white people on his show. Of course, the comic was right about political correctness. It’s not only the enemy of comedy. It’s the enemy of human life — no more than fascism with a phony egalitarian face. And Seinfeld, who is being accused of being a racist (natch), is less of a racist than any of his detractors. But that’s par for the course these days. Both of these seemingly minor media dust-ups are yet more indications that our society is at a tipping point. A critical mass may be welling up against the tyranny of modern liberalism. The next few years will be interesting — culturally and politically.” Seinfeld, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times: Scenes from the Culture War

Obamacare

Going broke because of our ever-expanding welfare state. “Today the Congressional Budget Office upped the number of work hours lost due to Obamacare by a lot — in fact, they tripled their previous estimate. Work hours can be lost by employers reducing the number of jobs, but also individuals voluntarily dropping out of the labor force or not working as much. Our awareness of the second group owes much to the excellent microeconomic analysis done by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. Mulligan has done a great deal of work looking at the growth of transfer programs such as food stamps and Medicaid and how these programs will discourage work, particularly for lower-wage earners. Today’s report shows that the CBO has moved substantially in Mulligan’s direction: Simply put, the large subsidies under the Affordable Care Act will drive many people out of the labor market.” Incentives Matter: Why Estimated Job Losses Under Obamacare Have Tripled

We tried to tell them, but they wouldn’t listen, because they didn’t really care. “There’s no doubt the Affordable Care Act will redistribute wealth in America. People at the top of the income ladder will pay more; people at the bottom will benefit. But how, exactly, will that work? A new study finds that Obamacare’s redistribution will be stunningly lopsided. Scholars at the liberal Brookings Institution have discovered that Obamacare will increase the income of Americans in the lowest 20 percent of the income scale, and especially in the lowest ten percent. But all other income groups — even people who make very modest incomes in the $25,000 to $30,000 range, as well as all income brackets above that — will experience a decline in income because of Obamacare. In other words, Obamacare is going to cost some of the very people it was designed to help.” Obamacare will reduce incomes of most Americans

More unintended consequences. “The Congressional Budget Office released a major study of the government’s budget and its effect on the overall economy over the next 10 years. In dull bureaucratic language, it delivers a devastating analysis of the inefficiencies, ineffectualities and problematic social costs of ObamaCare. The one-two punch: Virtually as many Americans will lack health coverage in 10 years as before the law was passed — but 2 million fewer will be working than if the law hadn’t passed.” Congressional Budget Office sends death blow to ObamaCare

“Democrats who plan on facing the voters this November by trying to change the subject to discussions of the minimum wage or vague talk about inequality must think again. Ignoring the devastating impact of ObamaCare on an economy that is still not fully recovered is not a winning strategy. Faced with an electorate that knows they are paying a heavy price in jobs, increased health-care costs, and poorer coverage, Democrats are going to have to do better than to tell the people that ObamaCare can’t be discussed.” CBO Political Dynamite: OCare Job Losses

Whatever this guy is drinking, he needs to stop–NOW. “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Congressional Budget Office report that shows Obamacare will make the labor force lose 2.3 million full-time workers by 2021 is positive because it lets Americans be “free agents.” “We have the CBO report, which rightfully says, that people shouldn’t have job lock. If they — we live in a country where there should be free agency. People can do what they want,” Reid told reporters outside of a close policy luncheon. ‘And what they’re saying here is — and the fact checkers have already done this — the Republicans talk about losing millions of jobs simply isn’t true. It allows people to get out of a job they’re locked into, because of — they have healthcare in their job.’” Reid: Obamacare Doesn’t Cost Jobs, It Turns Workers Into ‘Free Agents’

President Obama

“When he tortured the rules to pass health care, he destabilized politics and created the poisoned political climate and toxic divisions of which he and his allies complain. As Charles Krauthammer says, the Tea Party was created by Obama and health care, and the fierce fight against it echoes the manner in which it was passed. The “current unrest,” as he says, is “the residue of that hubris.” He’s right.He lives in his own little La La land.” Obama, suffering from his own hubris, blames everyone else

President Ronald Reagan

No more establishment types. “In that 1981 CPAC speech, Reagan recounted a recent conversation he had with his friend and political soul mate, Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reagan told Thatcher he believed that everywhere one looked in 1981 what Reagan called “the cult of the state” was dying, noting of the Soviet Union that “the largest planned economy in the world has to buy food elsewhere or its people would starve.” One suspects that were Reagan here today he would be disappointed that with the Soviet Union vanquished it is his beloved America that has now turned to the follies of central planning, this time of American health care. But he surely wouldn’t be surprised that those he called the “fraternal order” Republicans were suddenly finding themselves on the short end of the fundraising stick as that New York Times story tells us after studying the newly filed financial statements.” Return of the Reagan Revolution

With the election fading further into our rear view mirrors, let's have some fun!

At our December Christmas luncheon, we are thrilled to be able to present to you the talented A Capella Syndicate, the Phoenix Area's newest musical sound.

The group is a singing brotherhood that promotes harmony in our community through performances and outreach. They've recently joined the Barbershop Harmony Society, the world's largest men's singing organization and are the 2016 Far Western Arizona Division champions.

Bring your friends and family!

We promise you will get goose bumps as they sing to us all of our holiday favorites! We hope to see you there!